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Mayor Bloomberg=food police

New York - New Yorkers on food stamps would not be allowed to spend them on sugar-sweetened drinks under an obesity-fighting proposal being floated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson.
(first article)

Mayor Bloomberg's latest health campaign -- cutting salt intake -- has targeted soup as one of the big sodium offenders to be taken down with new city ads.

The ads, which will be plastered on subways for the next two months, feature a half-opened can of soup with a geyser of salt spewing from the top and forming a heap around the can.

What, if anything, does this kind of legislation accomplish? People who smoke know it's bad...

and here's the kicker...two thirds of the cost of those soup=salt ads are being paid for by the federal government. Why?

IMO- this is a much better solution:
The department recently launched a pilot program to encourage food stamp recipients to make more healthful choices in their food shopping. Under the program, involving 7,500 randomly selected households in Massachusetts, participants get 30 cents added to their benefit balances for every dollar they spend on fruits and vegetables — which reduces the cost of fresh produce by almost one-third.

While I don't doubt his heart is in the right place (after all, obesity IS a problem in this country, and salt intake SHOULD be limited), I agree with you that the example you quoted is a better way to go about it...

This is so ridiculous. And that is a good point - government employees are spending billions more in "your tax dollars" on Pepsi and Cambells than anyone receiving any kind of assistance does. I also wonder at the actual letter of his law "sugar sweetened" is a misnomer, and definitely sounds like a publicity stunt while still placating lobbyists. Very few things, especially drinks, are "sugar sweetened". They are HFCS, err sorry, corn sugar, sweetened. The few things thar are actually "sugar sweetened" are more likely to be healthier foods that use small amounts of real sugar in addition to natural ingredients. Products that are all chemical aren't adding a dash of sugar for flavor, they just add more chemicals. Is he actually going to end up banning fruit juice and leaving all the energy drinks and pop on the table?

WHO had to approve the usage of the sodium, the sugar, the high fructose corn syrup, the preservatives, the msg, the sulfites and let's not forget the pesticides, ALL OF THIS GARBAGE, to be used in or on our food sources in the 1st place? Even the plastic containers food comes in, is bad for us, especially our children! And WHY did they allow the manufacturers to use "ALL OF THIS GARBAGE" in the processing of their products? So that they could make more money, of course! SO EXACTLY WHO is responsible for making the majority of our food sources unhealthy? Our food has been intentionally modified, which ensures illnesses like Diabetes and Hypertension to occur at a much younger age, which ensures the need for medications that we are told we must take, to keep us alive. AND WHO is now going after restaurants, who have toys in their kid's meals, as if they are responsible for all of the obesity? Our GVT! The joke's on us!